ANOTHER HEART CALLS, (LIAT)

[TALAN ASHBY DESOTO]

The sun shone down on the city in hot, bright rays. Still the people hurried about their daily lives and wore their massive amounts of clothing. It was rare that you saw anyone bearing too much skin in this city. Maybe it was because the women here did not want to be shouted and whistled at like pieces of meat or called things like a harlot. Now if he saw a pretty lady with some bare shoulders he would do no such thing. He would only make such inquiries in his head since that was the polite thing to do wasn’t it? But in this city there was never anything that truly struck his fancy or even remotely caught his attention. None of the women here made him feel weak in the knees, none of the smells made him feel safe or curious, and all of those other sites and people just made him want to turn right back around, march down that dusty road, and climb back up onto the ship that he had come from. The ocean was always full of promising adventure compared to this dull stretch of humans and stone. Alas, he had business that needed to be tended too in this city. And it wasn’t his gut or just some meeting with another that was bringing him here. No, unfortunately, he had a bit of a debt to pay and he had been sent here.

Help would have been a wonderful thing, no doubt, but Talan had decided that bringing his bunch of goons along with him would only get too many eyes. And all of that attention may cause a little bit of tension and problems considering they weren’t exactly the most popular people on the ocean. Pirates never were though, were they? No matter because for the moment nobody seemed to know who he was. And really he wasn’t all that surprised considering he doubted that he had caused so much trouble that he deserved to have his face painted onto a poster. The only way that people could recognize him was if they stared close enough and had known him a long time ago… this was, after all, the city that he had grown up in. But he had no intentions of getting together with old friends or family (especially his parents). The ties he once had were completely torn away. They probably assumed that he was dead by now.

Talan strolled the streets with his chin held high and curious. His bright blue eyes flicked around and he paid no heed to anyone who looked up at him curiously. His mind was focused and when he had a destination to make then he was clearly only set on doing that. He was horrible at multitasking and if he dared to look down and entertain himself with something else then he would temporarily forget what he was even doing here. Right now he was focused and he needed it to stay that way.

The girl named Liat. That was really all that he knew about her except for a few features that had been described to him and such. Somehow he had to… do something with her. Preferably find a way to kill her, he supposed. Yes, that may have sounded like a completely wretched thing to do to a stranger but you did what you had to in a world like this to survive. And when a goddess told you that you had a debt to pay then you paid it. Talan had no intentions of pissing the creator of his world off and if he had to kill a few pretty faces to get on her good side then he would find a way to do. He was a blood thirsty pirate. That was just one of the things he did. Well, he usually left most of the murdering and such to the others while he took care of talking and sneaking about… but he could pull this off, he was certain. All that he needed to do was locate the girl in the city. And hopefully this goddess wasn’t putting him on some wild goose chase.

The first girl with long blond hair that he saw he instantly skipped up to and grabbed by the wrist, spinning her around while putting on a sweet sort of smirk. “Liat?” The girl furrowed her brows and pushed him off. Her eyes were dark brown and her cheeks were rosy red with fury since he had just grabbed her. He let his expression slip and gave her a dull look. “Nope, no face as sweet as a princess here,” he called to no one, in a monotone sort of voice. The woman’s jaw simply dropped and she hissed something under her breath as she pushed passed him. He could still hear her snarling things about him and snatching other’s to tell them too. But he didn’t really care. Talan simply went on with staring down every single blond that he could find. Awkward for them, work for him.

[LIAT ROSEN IONA]

Liat had survived, it was still a shock to her to be honest. She hadn’t expected to live let alone be able to walk away from the storm that had killed most of her men and wrecked her ship. She had already decided to let it go for a little while. The men would return to Sivum and tell Marius of her death. The company could he all his for a little while until she showed back up. That would be a shock for him, but she felt like he needed a good shock once in a while. Still she was aware that this was kind of a cruel one to play on her constantly faithful cousin. He would be alright without her though, he managed the office in Sivum anyways. As he liked to point out there was no way of keeping her up north for all that long. It simply served to cure her homesickness and then she was off again. Also she was more accustomed to the cultures of the other lands, having seen them. Marius was steadfast in his northern ways. There was no breaking him of his habits at this point, and it would be a bloody battle to try.

Instead of heading home she had headed south, as the closest place for her to rest and recover was Revko. She liked the capital and she had friends there, so hiding out would be no problem. She had managed to straggle her way there and then find shelter with an old friend of hers. Upon seeing the condition that Liat was in the girl had instantly let her into her home. There she had been able to rest and recover for a few days. She was feeling better already in all fairness, as the chill had finally seeped out of her bones. Once that fever had broken it was a quick recovery. Still she remembered her promise to the god of death and cut her finger, leaving the knife with the blood on it out at night. She wondered if he actually personally come to collect it. She could never stay awake long enough to check.

Cabin fever had set in quickly for her as well, and she ached to be out again, or even just allowed out of the bed. She fought for that and gained it inch by in. Once she felt well enough she knew that she could not impose on her friend anymore and left. She had enough money to put herself up in an inn comfortably. After all she had some debts to collect on in Revko, and that would keep her going for a while. Then again who even knew how long she would stay there for. Today, in particular, she was spending some time in the market place. It was an interesting place and she blended in well enough, or at least she thought so. She didn’t actually meld into her surroundings like she imagined.

She had found that most people in Revko had brown hair, or at least hair that was not a brilliant blonde. In that sense she stood out. Still some were in the market so she did not stand out too much. She had to attend to her clothing, as she was still wearing loaned clothes, since she had to throw out the ragged mess she had arrived in. She picked what to wear according to her surroundings at current.

Just then a blonde woman pushed past Liat angrily. She looked up at the woman, who was scowling. Immediately the woman went into a tirade about a man grabbing her, but one start made Liat’s heart stop. He had called the woman Liat. The woman pointed him out to Liat, and Liat looked at him. She stared at him for a moment and then turned and fled. She ran towards the docks, hoping to get away as quickly as possible. Elejen was still after her, it was the only logic Liat could apply to the situation.

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[TALAN ASHBY DESOTO]

A loud, obnoxious huff burst from Talan’s lips as he stood tall in the crowd with his arms crossed over his chest. He swayed from side to side a bit, placing his weight on one foot to the other while he continued to survey the crowd around him. Feeling a little braver, he turned his eyes over his shoulder to watch his new found enemy storm off, showing passed others. He caught sight of another blond as she shoved passed and this one took a moment to look at him too. It felt like a long time as she stared and he did everything in his power to decide whether or not she was the one that he was searching for. He stared her down, narrowing his sharp blue eyes waiting for some obvious sign to jump out at him. Eventually it did but it wasn’t a physical marking or sign from the goddess, instead, what gave the woman away was her seemingly out of place urge to flee the scene. And she did it in a very obvious manner. At least it was obvious to his eyes.

Talan made no verbal indication that was going after her. The man simply uncrossed his arms and started through the crowd the way that he had come earlier. His eyes were narrowed in concentration, square on their mark now. But as her figure grew more and more distant, he realized that he would need to pick up the speed and make a few more enemies. So he kicked it into the next gear and started at a sprint through the dense crowd (that seemed even more crowded when you were bolting through it and knocking over civilians). He heard some shouts his way but ignored them with ease as he could honestly care less about any of them at the moment. Nobody was chasing him. He was just some annoying guy who showed up in the city and they would rather he was running out of it anyways. And it wasn’t like he was going to stop for any of them. Oh no, he knew where that girl was going and knew that he would have a good chance out there because that was where his ship was waiting (yeah, they didn’t have the most notorious pirate reputation obviously). As soon as she got there he would just have to round her up in the ship and he could call out to his men. Then again, they weren’t very discreet about anything.

The crowd was not an easy obstacle. They continuously slowed him down and some even shoved him right back to knock him back a few paces, interested in starting a scuffle. But he was thin and really good at running away from trouble. And why was it that it seemed to take longer running after this girl than finding her? She couldn’t run forever! And the ocean would stop her if they could just hurry up and get there. But it seemed like luck was not exactly on his side. A hand snatched up his bicep and yanked him back, almost causing him to fall back onto his bottom. Talan wrinkled up his nose in disdain.

The wavy haired blond threw his head back and narrowed his eyes as he turned to face his capture. But when he realized who it was his heart practically sank into his boots and he suddenly found himself replacing that scowl with an innocent grin. The guard did not look like he was having the best of days either. In fact, he looked like he was preparing himself to chew Talan out and then lop his head off with the long sword sheathed at his side. It sent a quick set of chills up Talan’s spine and he quickly tried to explain himself.

“Afternoon, officer!” he made his voice bright and airy. “What seems to be the problem?”

“You, sir.”

Talan felt himself deflate when the officer’s voice came in a single snarl with that one word. His eyes were set on Talan and Talan knew that he had to make a choice right now. Either he was going to let this guy have his way with him (and goodness knew what that would be) or he would have to weasel his way out of this one. He looked over his shoulder, noting that the blond girl was vanishing right before his eyes. She obviously had no interest in him and somehow knew who he was and what he was doing. Maybe… but that wasn’t his biggest problem right now and he immediately turned his eyes up toward the guard again, forcing on a grin.

“I’m really sorry about this, officer,” he explained carefully. “But you should really look into the kingdom purchasing some plate for you.” Talan offered a grin to the man and then proceed to… take a low blow, so to speak. He kneed the man in the groin with a swift pop of his leg and then was released from his grasp. Talan wasted no time in turning around and starting after the blond girl again. His heart was racing now and he was growing somewhat irritate at the woman for running from him. He ran as hard as he could to get her in his sights and keep her there. “Hey! Liat?! If that’s you for the love of everything worthy of time on this world please stop running!”

[LIAT ROSEN IONA]

Liat was not sure what to do, she was not sure why someone was looking for her. Well, that was not true exactly. She had some idea of what was going on, and she was not all that pleased with it. The reason? Because it clearly meant the death of her. She was not sure what she had done to upset the Goddess. What had she done to deserve such a bounty placed on her head? Surely nothing, she had never done anything that might earn her a death sentence. She had been a faithful servant to the goddess, well, as much as anyone else was. Still she had evidently miss stepped enough for the Goddess to want to claim her life. The thought of it nearly made her weep for some sort of reasoning, though she knew that there might not be. After all the Goddess did not have to give reasons to a mortal, that was only wishful thinking. It was not fair, it was not fair in the least. She could have wept, truly she could have wept after all that had happened. The worst part was that she was slowing, her breath becoming more labored as she forced herself on.

Liat’s feet pounded against the dock. The blonde hair flew out behind of her, sprinting on mostly out of pure determination. She was still weak from her illness and ordeal, and so her lungs were quickly compromised when she tried to run away. She gasped as she ran, wanting air but unable to come across enough to keep her body satisfied. She put in a last burst of speed but then she stumbled to a stop. She gasped for air, trying to get her body to move again, though the attempt was starting to feel futile. She looked frantically around the dock for somewhere to hide, but there was nowhere for her to tuck herself away.

Then something occurred to her that she had not thought of before. Perhaps this was another matter that he was coming to her for. She could be jumping the gun right now when it came to the man. This could all be perfectly innocent. She regained her poise and waited as the man caught up. Still as he approached her nerves jumped. There was just something unsettling about all of it. What business could he possibly have with her? There was none that she could think of. She took a breath as she turned to run again, but it was no use, she did not have the head start that she had been given before.

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[TALAN ASHBY DESOTO]

Every nerve in his body was on fire and not to mention his poor lungs. After injuring the officer in the city Talan had kept on with running as fast as he could without taking a moment to apologize about bumping into any shoulders. It seemed that the word from the guard being hurt was trailing right along behind him because every now and then he would hear a shout or seven bursting out behind him. Everyone in front of him would turn to hear what the commotion was about and he was thankfully bulleting right on through everyone before they got the idea in their heads that he had stirred up just a tad bit of trouble being all of them. Talan didn’t have the time to see if any of them knew the reason behind the officer wanting to make an arrest on him. For all he knew he was just seen as a normal, average guy who just kicked an officer in the family jewels. That itself wasn’t exactly smiled upon but it wasn’t half as bad as having been a pirate and stealing goods for a good long while now. Yes, it was truly in his best interest to run as fast as his skinny legs could carry him.

He was closing in on the docks now and rather dramatically sucking in air through his lips as he tried to fix the tiredness wearing in on him. It had been a long damn while since he had gotten this much running in! Usually all he had to do was stab a guy and take what he needed, you know? But now, oh, this girl had to make him run for his money. Or, in this case, his life. Talan was very aware that having his life in the hands of the gods because of a bit of a bargain was not the safest situation to be in. And if this girl was what would get him out of the hotspot then, by Elejen, he was going to catch her! The simple thought of his life on the line made him keep running down the dock after her.

She had stopped then. Wait a moment, she had stopped?! Oh, the glorious gods had smiled upon him now! She had stopped running and now seemed to be waiting on him to catch up to her. For a moment he slowed to a job with a grin welling up on his features. That is, until he remembered his incident with the guard. That got him running toward her again.

As he approached the blond called Liat he noticed that she seemed unnerved about his presence. And she should have felt that considering he wasn’t here for anything good. It wasn’t like he was delivering good news to her, after all. He was here to tell her that a goddess wanted her and he was going to take her to that goddess. Unless Elejen decided to just pop right on in. that would be nice right about now. Here’s your girl, you wonderful bitch, now take her!

“Finally!” he gasped as he stumbled to a stop before her. “Now, I need you to get on my ship!” He seemed somewhat frantic but cool about it at the same time. The only reason his eyes looked so worried was because of the people starting after him now. It was only a few, pointing and such. But he was sure someone would be down soon enough. “And I can take you by… by force! Or you can just go up there.”

He didn’t really think to explain this to her. No… he just wanted her to do it and do it now. He didn’t want to be caught in this city. Not this place of all places… not to mention he wasn’t too keen on the idea of being taken to a dungeon to rot.